Happy New Year, one and all ! ! !

I've heard that some of you
have been wondering where I've been ! ! ! :-)

Well, as you already know, Christmas was quite and eventful time and all of us were sitting on pins and needles waiting for a phone call that still has not come and for that we are grateful. After doing a bit of cleaning and some laundry, I had to pack for our long awaited weekend in Victoria.
We stayed at the Chateau Victoria Hotel in downtown Victoria.

Very nice and we liked it.

That's right, we and 7 other couples had booked the New Year's weekend on the Island.
We left with the 10:00 am ferry on Saturday and returned with the 3:00 pm ferry on Tuesday.
We had a great time of visiting with each other and played a lot of games. Mostly cards!
Wally & I learned how to play poker, of all things! Found out very quickly that I'm a bad bluffer and that I would probably loose my shirt, should I ever decide to gamble in Las Vegas!
But hey, now we know how to play poker!

Having fun!

Saturday night we went for dinner at a very nice Italian Restaurant and celebrated Wally's brother-in-law's 60th Birthday. It had been cancelled because of everything that was going on over Christmas in our family. After coming back to the hotel that evening, we had our first evening of game playing!

In the middle is the Birthday boy!

Sunday we went for a nice sight seeing drive around Victoria and stopped for a nice brunch after which we went back to the hotel for a short rest and to get ready for New Year's Eve.
We went for dinner at a very nice Greek Restaurant just next door from the hotel.
They even had a belly dancer do her thing during the time we were there.
Once dinner was done, we went back to the hotel for some more games and at about 10:30pm we went up to the penthouse that two of the couples had reserved. We were going to wait for the clock to hit midnight in there, with some drinks and snacks.

Ready for an evening carriage ride!

As we were getting ready with the food, two of the couples were still missing and we were wondering what was keeping them and when they finally came, they told us that someone had jumped of the top of the hotel.

At first, we could not quite believe it but when the police came to the door it became very real.
The two couples were asked about what they had seen and if any of us had seen someone hanging around the hotel earlier that evening.
Unfortunately, none of us could recall seeing anyone suspicious and our friends just had heard a noise and when they had looked out of their respective hotel room windows, had seen the body lie at the bottom, on a side roof.
It was definitely not how we had wanted to ring in the New Year and we all wished that it had not happened. How sad to end your life like that, on New Year's Eve! I guess he just had no hope left and gave up his fight.

Monday morning, we learned that the unhappy person had been a street person that just walked into the hotel, went to the top of the building and jumped.
After having breakfast at the hotel's roof top restaurant, we all had different plans. Some of us went for another sightseeing drive and others had to get ready for check out. When we came back from our drive, we had our poker lessons and had a whole lot of fun for the rest of the evening. It was a riot!
On Tuesday morning, after packing up and bringing our luggage to the car, we went back to have breakfast and visit a while, until it was time to leave for the ferry.
When it was time to leave and we got back to our car, we were surprised to see that someone had tried to break into our car and broken one of our small side windows. That turned out to be an expensive breakfast.
The hotel staff taped up our window and was most apologetic. They told us that Victoria is experiencing a big problem with street people and when it gets really cold or rains hard, they will just walk into the lobbies or the parkades. The hotels have not been able to upgrade their security systems, fast enough.
So, now you know that we had yet another eventful weekend!
I sure hope that this coming weekend will be nice and laid back, without any out of the ordinary happenings.